From the Spanish Conquest onwards, the Colombian Pacific Region has been subject to the relentless extraction of its natural resources -such as gold, clay, balsam and several precious woods- in a process that did not generate any benefits to local people. When big logging companies entered the region in the sixties, a period of social, cultural, economic and environmental devastation started.
Bulletin articles
The recent resolution of the Colombian government, in agreement with the U'wa leaders, according to which their legally recognized territory was increased in 120,000 hectares -now comprising 220,275 hectares- was celebrated as a great victory. Nevertheless, the consideration by the Ministry of the Environment of a request of environmental license for exploratory drilling by Occidental Petroleum just outside the newly created Unified U'wa Reservation is a pending menace on them (see WRM Bulletin 26).
The environmental NGO Accion Ecologica, with headquarters in Quito and working in several locations of Ecuador has been accused of being involved in the recent kidnappings of eight oil company technicians that occured near Lago Agrio in the Amazonian region of the country. This organization has released the following statement:
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has recently signed a letter of intent to participate in a tree plantation project promoted by the state agency State Forests of New South Wales, Australia, allegedly as part of its efforts to tackle global warming. New South Wales established a legal right last November on carbon sequestered from plantations. State forestry bodies in Australia have been looking to market their projects as sinks in the newly created "carbon offsets market" by the Kyoto Protocol. Such initiative is not the only one in the push of Australia to enter this market.
In 1997 Friends of Hamakua -a local NGO- together with local farmers and community organizations successfully resisted a project of Prudential Insurance Co.and Oji/Paper Marubeni to set up a big eucalyptus plantation and a pulp mill in the Big Island of Hawaii. The project was finally rejected by the Hawaiian authorities (see WRM Bulletins 3 and 7).
Every time we visit an area covered with large scale monoculture tree plantations we find local people faced with the same or very similar problems. In Thailand and Chile, in Brazil or Venezuela. And each time we find foresters denying that those problems even exist.
On October 4th, Greenpeace called on wood product consumers to end their role in ancient forest destruction by not purchasing from companies involved in destructive logging in ancient forests. Greenpeace launched a global report, ‘Buying Destruction: a Greenpeace report for corporate consumers of forest products’, naming more than 150 companies producing or trading in forest products coming from ancient forests.
A group of 87 indigenous peoples organizations, NGOs and networks signed last July in Geneva, Switzerland, an indigenous peoples' statement on the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) of the WTO Agreement.
On September 17th and in the framework of an international campaign we addressed Mr Hiroshi Yasuda, Governor of the Export-Import Bank of Japan, urging him to reconsider the agency's support for the San Roque Dam project in The Philippines (see article above).
On October 1st a fax was sent to Mr Ranayan Rane, Chief Minister of Mantralaya, India, in defence of the Narmada villagers and environmental activists which are in serious risk of drowning because of their determination to oppose the submergence of the Narmada Valley by the unfinished dam.
A conflict has arisen regarding 400,000 hectares of forest land in the Indian state of Orissa. Actors are the villagers who have recreated the forest from barren lands and government officials, who believe the area belongs to the state. Out of the total protected area, 60% are reserve forests and the rest are either protected or village forests. Sustainable forests management by local communities in the area started in the decade of 1960.
The 4th National Conference and International Conference on "Paramos" (high plateau grassland ecosystems) and Cloud Andean Forests, which took place in Malaga, Santander, Colombia on November 1999 -including representatives from Colombia, Venezuela and Costa Rica- summarized its viewpoints in a declaration which is available in Spanish in WRM's web site:
http://www.wrm.org.uy/english/tropical_forests/paramos.html
The future credibility of the Forest Stewardship Council is at the crossroads. Aracruz Celulose, one of the largest tree plantation companies and the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp has applied for FSC certification for part of its land holdings (95.500 hectares, of which 56.500 hectares of eucalyptus plantations), located in the state of Bahia, Brazil.